Reinforced concrete pipe is conventionally created by positioning a cylindrical reinforcing wire cage within a vertically disposed cylindrical form. Concrete is then introduced into the form by means of a rotating packerhead assembly or other conventional pipe making equipment. A problem associated with the manufacture of reinforced concrete pipe is in centrally positioning the reinforcing wire cage with respect to the form so that the cage will be properly embedded within the pipe and will not be exposed at either the interior or exterior surfaces of the finished concrete pipe.
One method of positioning the cage utilizes spacer elements secured to the cage which extend outwardly therefrom for engagement with the interior of the form. Such a method necessarily results in the outer ends of the spacer elements being exposed at the outer surface of the concrete pipe.
A second method of positioning the cage involves the use of a plurality of horizontally disposed air cylinders which are mounted on the exterior of the form. Each of the air cylinders is connected to a horizontally movable slide which extends into the form for engagement with the cage. Although this method has met with some success, two troublesome disadvantages are associated therewith. The firsts disadvantage is that the forms occupy considerable floor space due to the outwardly extending, horizontally disposed air cylinders. The second disadvantage is that considerable air power is required to fully extend and retract the air cylinder so that the cage engaging slide moves sufficiently into the form for proper engagement with the cage and so that the cage engaging slide will be moved sufficiently outwardly relative to the form when the positioning and pipe forming operations have been completed.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide an improved device for centrally positioning a reinforcing cage within a concrete pipe form.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved device for positioning a reinforcing cage within a concrete pipe form which occupies less floor space than certain prior art devices.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a device for positioning a reinforcing cage within a concrete pipe form which does not result in the cage being exposed in the finished product.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device for positioning a reinforcing cage within a concrete pipe form including a novel cam arrangement for moving a cage positioning slide.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device for centrally positioning a reinforcing cage within a concrete pipe form which has an adjustment means for limiting the penetration of the cage engaging slides.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilleld in the art.